When Cain Velasquez was removed from UFC 207, Fabricio Werdum told MMA Fighting he was willing to fight anyone on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas, but a new bout never materialized. Dana White tells a different version of that story.
The UFC president revealed in a media scrum on Wednesday that the Brazilian turned down two different fights, including a rematch with Junior dos Santos, by asking for more money.
"Werdum has turned down two fights,” White said. "JDS. Yes. Werdum turned that fight down.
"Then we offered him a fight with I think Alistair Overeem in Brooklyn [UFC 208], and he turned that down too."
"There’s different ways to turn fights down,” White continued. "I’d call him and say ‘hey, do you want this fight?’, ‘no, I don’t want this fight’, or you can say ‘yeah, for 800 thousand dollars and a piece of pay-per-view.’ That’s turning down the fight."
Moments after White’s media scrum, Werdum posted on his Instagram page a pair of texted messages he claims he sent Dana White on Dec. 24. In those texts, Werdum says he did not know other fighters were willing to fight him, and indeed asked for more money.
"I think it was a missing understanding [sic] about it,” Werdum texted White. "I didn't know that were people willing to fight me and I didn't turn it down at all. Once again I didn't know about it. Please let me know if you would have a time to talk about it because I am ready to fight anyone.
"Would you be able to pay me 500k flat plus PPV? I will fight anyone because I want to prove to you I am part of the UFC family. Please let me know what you think about it?”
Werdum told MMA Fighting on Wednesday night that Dana White didn't reply those messages.